Shadow of the Pendulum
by Absol Master
Summary: If you knew that someone close to you was about to die, would you give up everything to save them--even the freedom of your soul? Winner of CrapPishh's fanfic challenge, part B. Also the companion to Hands of the Clock and Cogs of Destiny.


Done for CrapPishh's fanfic challenge, part B. Enjoy, and sorry for the length. My longest oneshot ever, now. Finally back to my old style...that's a relief.

* * *

Shadow of the Pendulum

The fortune teller had said that her son's fate was filled with pain.

She had never believed in these fortune tellers, nor in what they prophesised. Fortune-telling was only a way for those poor old women to make money. It was only a tradition to bring her child to the fortune teller to hear her sing praises. Why should she care about the lies of a fraud?

But she had given an ominous warning instead of praise, and this couldn't be a good sign.f

Her message had struck fear into her heart. Her statement, Yai Bua's statement, that one solemn line, had brought to her mind the future that awaited her son. Something she didn't wish to think about.

He was still eight. He had such a long way to go in life. There was so much danger in the world, so much uncertainty. They were struggling to make ends meet, and though she was going to get interviewed for a job soon, who knew how much that would help? Who was she to think that her son truly would be safe for the rest of his life?

She had to know. She had to know that Goldenblaze would grow up strong and healthy, that he would not be plagued by suffering of any kind. Especially that he would not—…

She didn't want to think of what might happen. She had to know, know for sure that there was nothing to worry about.

So here stood Icerainbow, at the crossroads where the Clocktower split into three—Warped Path, Forgotten Path and Origin. She vaguely observed her surroundings, a lift lobby in the depths of the Clocktower, while musing on what she was about to do.

The three guardians of the Clocktower played different roles in the guardianship—Thanatos watched time as it ended, forgotten; the Gatekeeper watched time as it passed by, moved in its river-like course, and oversaw its smooth passage.

But the Papulatus Clock was the one she sought, the one who watched time as it was created—the one who wrote time itself, wove its fabric, decided what would happen, created the future. It would be able to tell her.

The lift down to the Origin arrived at the lobby, empty, its arrival marked by a high metallic ring. Icerainbow turned and stepped in, glancing about at everything—the translucent, frosted blue glass walls that showed only a little of the surroundings, the similarly glassy floor that had not been trodden upon for at least a century—people were now afraid to visit the Papulatus Clock for divinations. She had heard that the prices it charged for foresights were sometimes absurd, terrible. But none could avoid payment.

She hoped that the Clock would not charge her too much. It was a question, a mere question that would cost it no effort to answer. Would it ask for so much in exchange for that piece of information?

_Will my son's future be free of disaster?_

She had phrased that question concisely, and as the lift descended into the Origin, the place from which time flowed outwards into the world, she felt her hands grow cold in the icy air, nervousness engulfing her. Silently, she recited the words again.

_Please, let everything go as planned._

It was amazingly bright and colourful. All around the lift door, a swarm of tiny black stars was gathered, their eyes peering wonderingly up at her. _What are those, _she wondered as she looked back, seeing strange emotions like sadness, confusion and hope in the eyes set into their black bodies.

"Now, what are you," she whispered, not a question, glad to know that she was not alone in this cold place, not the only breathing soul around.

To her surprise, breezes of words replied. _"Hello…hellloooo…" _She smiled at them, but sensed the hidden sadness in their voices, and wondered why they mourned, when they were alone in this room, without having to fear anything.

_Alone…_

Icerainbow looked up and around at the walls, primarily pink with blocks of other colours reminiscent of the city of Ludibrium above. Somehow, this combination of shades and hues felt completely inappropriate to the cold that surrounded her as she searched for what she sought.

As she raised her gaze beyond the little creatures gathered at her feet, to a high platform beside a huge clock, she gasped. There was no Papulatus Clock there, no black stars—just a huge ball of light, surrounded with tangles and strings of light, ribbons of ancient symbols, coiling and whirling around the brightness at the centre.

Was that the Papulatus Clock? Was that where it was hidden? How would she get it to appear, then?

Something stirred in her thoughts, and she remembered. One had to destroy the Sphere of Time that protected it, for the guardian of time's beginning to appear.

Icerainbow had nothing with her. She had not brought any weapons, any of her various staves, for it had not crossed her mind that this was what she had to do to wake the Papulatus Clock.

But when she was about to fall down in anger with her stupidity, an idea crossed her mind. She still had a voice. She could wake it up in the conventional way.

"Papulatus Clock!" she yelled, running towards the sphere, watching the light of the object widen and brighten as she came towards it. She stood amidst the reflections of light thrown against the bright floor, eyes facing the astounding light ahead of her, defiant.

There was no response at all from the sphere. She cursed. What had she been thinking, to awaken the guardian by screaming?

That was the only way. She had made the effort to come, and she would not allow this to turn her away. "Papulatus Clock! I want you to divine my son's future!" She screamed as hard as she could, but the monster did not emerge from the ball of bright strings, nor did it show any signs of hearing her shout.

Icerainbow clenched her teeth and soared forth, across the ground. _Let's see how good a protection this Time Sphere really is, _she thought angrily, thrusting herself forward at the sphere.

A sound like a gong shook the glassy surrounds as she collided with the light of the Time Sphere. At that, all the stars came forward, flew up onto the stage, and at once, Icerainbow felt them pulling on her legs, trying to drag her away from their master.

"_No, nooo…" _they all called the same words in their various voices.

Curious instead of angry, Icerainbow turned to them. "Why?" she mused to herself. "I only want to ask about my son's future, nothing much…I can't be charged that much for that kind of information, can I?"

"_Will take your soul," _they called out. _"Will take your soul…"_

The words puzzled her, and at the same time, they made her wonder what they meant by that. But they seemed unwilling to say more, their eyes staring fearfully past her instead.

Icerainbow turned around and realized why. The sphere was opening. The strings of symbols were unraveling as she watched, the strands pulling away, turning into yellow rays as they unwrapped the creature that stood within.

A small blue creature riding a huge clock with hands, a few control levers at its tiny fingertips. The face was hardly human, eyes blank in its blue face. Something like a bean sprout grew out of its head.

When Icerainbow first laid her eyes on it, she felt like laughing. She barely contained the impulse, and held back her laughter with many gasps. This, the guardian of time's beginning?

Again, she looked up at the disapproving face and smiled. There was a strange aura of power in the air now, and the little blue creature seemed to give off some strange kind of incandescence that told the cleric that this creature was a lot more powerful than it appeared to be.

_It's strange how something so huge could be contained within that tiny Time Sphere. That thing was only twice my height._ But space was such a confusing thing—time and space.

"You have come for a favour." The creature's voice was high and haughty, definitely feminine. _Feminine? _

Icerainbow nodded hopefully, her heart threatening to burst with nerves as they returned, more forcefully than ever. "My son," she said. "Tell me he'll be safe, please…his name is Goldenblaze. Tell me that he will be happy, and strong, and I'll be gone…"

The Papulatus, if that was what it was called, looked over the edge of its huge clock machine. "I'm afraid to say that…if you want me to tell you something good, then I am unable to. Your son is destined for early death."

Icerainbow had been smiling till then. At that moment everything she had felt seemed to vanish, and suddenly the world was spinning around her.

Death.

She could already feel tears rushing to her eyes, as she thought back to the tiny baby he had held in her arms years ago, so warm and cheerful. She thought of the energetic boy whom she had left an hour before this.

Death. The word hung in the air as she took it in and realized that this wasn't a dream. No. The voice still echoed on the walls of her mind, turning all the world, suddenly, into a deep black tunnel. Blackness washed around in her heart, her mind.

Her son, the one she loved so dearly, held so close to her heart. Death. She didn't want to believe. And yet she had to.

"_How? _How will it happen?! Why…why?"

The Papulatus smiled sadly. "So many have gotten the news before their time, and all of them reacted like you," it said.

At once, she was picked up in a whirl of pictures, drawn into another's body, and she saw an image directly before her—a woman's face looking down into her eyes. Her own face, she came to realize, bewildered.

Suddenly, she was choking as pain seized her chest. Her lungs were filled, and her breaths didn't come through properly. She gasped, as her other self, in the image, took her shoulders and shook them hard. She could hardly feel them. She was going numb, cold all over, and she couldn't breathe. Her lungs hurt, hurt so badly…

"_STOP_! Please!" Icerainbow screamed, falling down in tears as the image and the senses that came with it faded away. She understood what that was—her son's last moments. She had not been able to breathe; it had been such suffering…

"Two years," the Papulatus said, as if mocking her. "He will suffer like that for two years, and you, no one, will be able to save him. …You did not want to see this, did you?"

She shook her head, still trying to shut it out, her mind screaming not to have this knowledge. And yet, she knew it. She knew this was going to happen, beyond her control, beyond anyone's. Her son was set on this path. Everything had been decided; there was no changing time, was there?

…_Was there?_

"Please…don't make it happen!" she was screaming hysterically, yelling as if in pain, for she was. "Please change it…have mercy!"

"You are aware that you have to pay?" the blue creature was smiling. "I _can _rewrite time, because time is always not fixed, until it comes to the present. I can tell you how to avert this disaster, but for that, your soul is bound. On the day that your son was to die, I will claim you, and you will become one of my—companions." At that word, it glanced down at the stars that surrounded her.

"I—I…"

Goldenblaze meant everything to her. Who cared if her soul was taken prisoner? At least he would live. He would be happy. That was all she needed.

Another image surrounded her. She saw a boy, and there was something familiar in his face, a shadow of herself and her deceased husband in the features. This had to be Goldenblaze in the future, she realised. He looked about ten, and he wielded a bow, an arrow strung in it as he aimed at a mushroom beyond a haystack. He held it with such strength, and the arrow sank into the monster, perfectly on target.

Icerainbow looked down, lip trembling.

"Y-yes," she finally said, doubtless. "Bind my soul. I want this."

The Papulatus Clock nodded. "When the day of your job interview comes, miss it. Take your son to school instead. If not, a group of bullies will push him into a river, and he will catch the disease from there. With you around, that will not happen."

She thought about the wide river in the Korean Folk Town, which Goldenblaze loved to stop by so much, the eddies on the current so fascinating to her son. Then she thought of her job interview, and of how much she had looked forward to it. They were at the end of their means, and this job would have secured their future.

But it did not matter to her at all. The imprisoning did not matter either. She wanted to save her son.

Icerainbow nodded solemnly, security and certainty returning. Then she dared to smile, with sudden relief.

_Nothing to worry about, dear, everything will be fine. Don't you fear…_

The Papulatus Clock drove the clock back up the stage. The symbol strings were flying to surround the guardian again, and she stepped back, watching in fascination, then turned to leave. The lift still stood open for her.

_Goldenblaze, I will never, never let you die._

* * *

The day came, the day when Icerainbow had originally signed up for her interview to be a shopkeeper.

She stared ruefully down the driveway, amidst the early morning sounds of roosters crowing, as her son packed his schoolbag and she prepared his breakfast. She would have gone for her job interview this day, had she not known what would happen if she did.

Goldenblaze left with Icerainbow, entering the brightness of the sunlit day. The dewdrops had not left yet, and the grass shimmered with a watery, silver blanket.

A fine day it was, a fine day it would have appeared to be in the beginning, the two having no notion of the fateful event that waited, had the cleric not gone to the Papulatus Clock. She was thankful for it, and at the same time, nervous about how it would happen.

A lump rose in her throat as their path went across the bridge over the river. She glanced about for the bullies the Papulatus Clock had mentioned, and smiled when she saw the group of boys hiding in the hedges close by, on the other bank. One came out, looking frustrated for moments, before his face twisted into a sneer, and he taunted Goldenblaze.

"Always need your mummy to be your bodyguard, eh?"

Icerainbow gritted her teeth and said nothing. Beside her, Goldenblaze had taken on a look of fear, but she placed a hand on his shoulder, and he relaxed. Other children would shrink away from their parents' touch, she knew. Their footsteps rang on the wood of the bridge, and she blatantly ignored the teasing shouts of the bullies.

Finally, they took to the path to school again, the roar of the river dying down. It felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She took in a deep breath and felt as if her mind had suddenly been cleaned, of worry, terror, all of the negative emotions she had felt earlier. In fact, she felt so relieved that she laughed a little out of sheer joy.

_He's safe now! He'll always be safe._

Her son turned to her. "Mother, your job interview was today!" he suddenly gasped, worried. "Why didn't you go?"

Icerainbow shook her head, trying not to look him in the eye. "It's nothing," she replied. "I can always look for another one." She knew this wasn't true.

Goldenblaze smiled back at his mother as they arrived at his school. "Have a nice day, Mother!" he called with a smile.

"You too," she replied lovingly, waving him goodbye.

Now, she took some time to ponder. How much had she changed by doing that? Were there greater consequences in changing the story of time as it went? Would anything better have happened, had she not done so?

She would never know, would she? All she knew at the moment—and she was glad about it—was that she had saved her son from death.

* * *

Icerainbow went to the storage keeper one morning, to withdraw more money for their bills. The two years had passed quickly, and the moment for her collection by the Papulatus Clock loomed ever closer, but brought neither fear nor anger. It all seemed right. The right price to pay the guardian, for helping her son to avert the excruciating death that would otherwise have been his fate.

"I'm sorry," the storage keeper said apologetically as Icerainbow requested a few thousand mesos.

She turned her eyes to him, bewildered. "What?"

He shook his head at her request. "You have run out of mesos," he explained. The cleric felt her stomach flip over.

_How will I pay the bills, buy food for Goldenblaze, pay for his school fees?_

Hundreds of implications ran through her mind in that one second, and she nearly collapsed. "S-sir," she said wearily. "Could you lend me some mesos?"

Again he apologized. "I do not engage in such businesses," he replied. She sighed, bowed, and left, suddenly not sure of what to do. She hardly felt the stones of the ground that she had almost tripped over on her way there. What would she do now? She was at a dead end.

For a moment, she realized that she would not have sunken irretrievably into this situation, had she gotten herself a job, those two years ago.

But it had been to keep his son safe…

Icerainbow held her face in her hands, tired. Tired of thinking of what she should have done, glad at the same time that she had made that choice. Now, there was only one thing she could do, and only two paths to choose from—borrow money, or die of starvation.

Goldenblaze waited at the doorstep as she arrived home. He must have noted her expression, for he stood and looked on questioningly at her. "Mother—?"

Icerainbow shook her head and turned away. "Everything's fine," she answered, barely keeping her voice neutral. "It has been a hot day; I just need some rest."

She wished she could explain, but she didn't want to explain everything. She knew that her son would blame himself for everything. He was a bowman now, and quite a good one—and he was young. Goldenblaze's life meant so much more than hers.

She didn't want to cast his life into shadow by ftelling him what she had done for him that day. She clung to the belief that her sacrifice would give him a chance to do what he wanted, to escape death and become as great as his potential allowed.

She borrowed money from a moneylender. The bills were paid, and their water supply remained.

But soon, the consequences became clear. She came home one day to painted threats in harsh red, scrawled all over the walls. Their windows were smashed when she was out. The door was broken down and their home wrecked by the moneylender to whom she owed the hundred thousand mesos.

_A hundred thousand _mesos.Icerainbow struggled to earn it again, as the damage done to their house got worse. Throughout, Goldenblaze watched the frightening events with puzzlement and fear, still unknowing of why it was happening. Icerainbow refused to tell him anything.

_If you knew the truth, you'd blame yourself. I don't want that. Just go on with your life; I'll handle everything._

Even she wasn't sure she could manage. She was digging herself deeper into a fate she would probably never rescue herself from.

"_Mother…why's this all going on? Who are these people?"_

She could hear in his voice all the confusion and terror that he didn't have to endure, but had been made him face, before his time.

Now, she stood in the midst of the almost unrecognizable rubble of their home's interior. Icerainbow didn't know what to do, as she watched over her son, lain silently on the thin mattress that could hardly be called a bed, still healthy as ever. Her own body was growing thin from lack of food, whatever muscle she had ever built up wasting away now.

His eyes didn't flicker; _he_ was having a peaceful night, at least. Icerainbow could not sleep. She could not stop her restless mind from racing over the events that had taken place because of the loan that she could not return—the repeated attacks by the loan sharks on their house, how they had broken everything down when she was out begging for money and food, how Goldenblaze's schooling had come to an abrupt end because she had not been able to pay the fees.

How she had not been able to share the cause of it all with anyone, and had had to last it through on her own. The onslaught of tragedy upon tragedy had not ended. Everyday, they drifted deeper and deeper into the mires of a future that held no light for them.

_Get us out! Get us out of this, please, _Icerainbow prayed fervently in her mind, though her expression never changed as she turned from her son to the window of their only, now dilapidated room. Among the splinters of the wardrobe and shelves, in front of the candle on the broken altar, she prayed as hard as she ever had in her life, knowing that the only thing that could save them from the tangle of events they had entrapped themselves in was divine intervention.

She leaned on a grey wall, closing her eyes, willing the painful worry, the continuous terror that held her for every hour of the day, to leave her soul. It clung to her like a parasitic vine.

Suddenly, Icerainbow felt the kiss of wind on her skin, slowly growing to a howl at the windowpanes, flooding into her room to hold her. Her eyelids flew apart and she glanced at the window. Her heart almost stopped from shock. A glowing figure stood outside.

"P-Papulatus Clock…" she breathed, stepping closer and closer to the window. "Are you here to take me?" The lightly glowing being didn't say anything; it nodded. The wind was freezing now, but the sudden amalgam of emotions that took hold of her now—relief, fear, finality—rendered her unfeeling to it. Icerainbow held the windowsill and looked straight into the creature's face. She had forgotten about her debt to the guardian.

"_Mother!"_

The Cleric jerked her head around suddenly, shocked by Goldenblaze's exclamation. She glanced at the Papulatus, and back at her son. "Goldenblaze! I—"

"I've come to claim your mother," the Papulatus said solemnly to the boy. Now, she became aware of the godly ring to its voice. Icerainbow eyed her son again. He shrank back towards the wall, unsure of what to do, it seemed.

"W-What does that thing mean?" he gasped, regaining some courage. "Why is it here to…claim you?"

Icerainbow had dreaded this question for two years. Now, perhaps, it was time to answer it. She tried not to allow the tears that stung her eyes to fall down her cheeks. No, she had to look fine; she had to make it seem that it was perfectly alright for this to happen.

"Goldenblaze…I once went to the Papulatus Clock to have future changed," she said slowly, her mind racing to collect all her whirling thoughts and phrase them. "Remember the day of my job interview? I missed it to…save you. You were going to catch a fatal disease that day. And…I got this knowledge from the Papulatus Clock."

She stopped to gage her son's expression. His eyes were widening. "Why?" he mouthed.

Icerainbow smiled, laughed, still struggling to hold back any tears. "I wanted you to grow up and do what your potential allows, Goldenblaze! You are the most precious—person in my life. I didn't want you to die."

She blinked rapidly, on the verge of allowing her strength to waver. _No, _she told herself angrily in her mind._ Stay strong!_ "Every mother wouldn't want that, Goldenblaze. I willingly gave up my soul to the Papulatus Clock to save you."

Goldenblaze stood, suddenly angry, determined, touched—all this showing in his features at the same time.

"Mother…" he gasped. His eyes were shiny with tears. "That's why you didn't tell me why we were out of money…You didn't want to explain why you missed your job interview…" His resolve returned. "You didn't have to do it. I don't want your soul to be captive for the rest of time! You can't…not for my sake!"

He ran to the window, beside Icerainbow, and turned to the Papulatus. "Change it all!" he shouted angrily. "I want it to change! My mother gave up her soul for my life—it's all wrong! She doesn't deserve to lose her freedom."

He turned away, overwhelmed with emotion. "She deserves to go to heaven. Change it, please. Let everything happen as it was supposed to."

Icerainbow shook her head frantically. "What are you doing, Goldenblaze?!" she yelled, equally angry and passionate. "Don't undo what I did! I want you to live, and I don't care if it means losing my freedom forever! I love you, Goldenblaze. I want you to grow up to be a great person, be the best you can. I don't want your life to be cut off there, and never to go on; you can do so much, don't you see?"

He bowed his head, and the Cleric saw a glittering tear fall to the ground in a fraction of a second.

"Mother…your life was destroyed because you gave up your job interview. You'll go away, leave me forever, and I'll live in a ruin with nothing to eat." Goldenblaze shook his head. "I will never become great. I'd rather you live the rest of your life well, than _I_ get a chance to continue to live. Everything would have been better…if I had died when I was supposed to."

The breath caught in Icerainbow's throat. "But your life—you'll suffer, and—"

"After death, all the pain will be gone." He looked up into Icerainbow's face, cheeks tear-stained, and forced a smile. "It will be better for both of us. At least…both of us will be free."

Icerainbow thought. And she understood what he said. Pain filled her throat as she thought about the disease he would have to endure until he died—pain that was natural, but had to be ignored.

_At least, both of us will be free._

"Papulatus," he repeated, returning his attention to the being at their window. "Please…change everything. Rewrite everything."

The creature nodded and shifted through the wall, the wind slowly ceasing.

Icerainbow took her son in her arms and held him for what she knew would be the last time in her life, in the middle of the small, wrecked room that was their home.

"Goldenblaze…I love you. I can't say it enough."

"…S-so do I," his reply came, shaking with tears. Then the resolve she had upheld not to cry, till then, suddenly broke down, and her emotions spilled over in the form of a fresh flood of salty tears. She didn't try to stop herself. She knew that this was the last she would see of Goldenblaze, that after this, she would never get to hold him or feel his warmth, ever again.

_I'll miss you… _"I'll really…miss you, Goldenblaze," she breathed through her sobs. "You won't forget me, will you? I'll pray for you."

"I won't forget. I'll wait for you."

A magical gust circled the two. The world sparkled beyond the tears that turned everything into a blur of dark, and Icerainbow felt as if she were suddenly rushing through the stars and the immense distances of space—but much farther, through someplace unreachable, though her feet were still firmly planted on the ground.

She opened her eyes as the wind stopped, and the world had changed around her. The furniture had become whole and unbroken again; the paint vanished off the walls as she watched. This was the world, just as it was supposed to be.

And Goldenblaze—he had vanished. He had been in her arms just moments ago—when had he gone? It had been too sudden—

"It is done." The Papulatus Clock's voice was solemn. Icerainbow said nothing, heard nothing. She looked around at the empty walls, at the completely tidy room, and smiled sadly. She knew that Goldenblaze was now dead. But somehow, she could not cry; her eyes were dry.

As the cleric walked once around the room, she took in what she saw—the school bag was not in its usual place below the altar. Only one pair of old, tattered shoes rested on the rack by the blank door.

_But at least, he's free. He's right. After death, whatever he suffered will no longer matter._

"Thank you."

The guardian of time's beginning didn't reply. It sighed—a long drawn-out sigh that held more sadness than Icerainbow had believed possible for any monster to feel. Moments later, there was a fizz in the air, and she turned to the window again—it had disappeared.

* * *

It had been a month. Life simply wasn't the same without Goldenblaze. Only when he was gone did Icerainbow now realise that he had been such a huge part of her life.

With that change in time's story, so much had become different. Her home was now well furnished. She had a job in the potion store of the Korean Folk Town, and made weekly earnings of five thousand mesos. She didn't have to beg anymore, and she could afford proper meals.

Living this life was so—strange, so unfamiliar; she had never thought she would have a life like this, where she could provide for herself, and never had to dread the day when she would run out of money. But the greatest difference was that she didn't have her son.

Yes, it had been a month. But to Icerainbow, it seemed a year, more than that—one that had taken all her effort and will to live through.

Once again, she knelt at the altar. A month ago, she had been praying there for saving from a disaster that now no longer existed. Now, she was praying for something different, something so much more important.

"Dear Goddess…I thank you for helping me make such a—hard choice," she whispered, before the altar, where a single candle burned, flickering gently in the calm night. "It wasn't easy, for him too. Thank you for giving my son such good counsel…for giving him the—the strength."

Every time she thought of his last spoken sentence, she could not hold back the tears, even though she tried her best to hold out, not to allow her emotions dictate her actions.

"_I'll wait for you."_

"—Keep him in your care," she struggled to say without her lower lip trembling. "He was a good boy." Regret filled her for a moment, as she thought of all that he could have been, could have done, and she felt wetness flow down her cheeks once more.

Perhaps the reason for all her pain, her longing, could be summarized in one phrase.

_I miss you._

She did miss him, more than she had thought she would, more than she believed herself. She couldn't do anything right. She couldn't sleep, couldn't pay attention. What had seemed beautiful to her before was now as plain as the dullest rock.

"Help me…to forget, because it will be for the better…" She bent lower and forced the pain away. "Goddess…I need your strength."

She fell silent as the wind suddenly rose and the candle began to flicker violently on the wax. She glanced out the window, and nothing was there. She blinked, suddenly realizing that tears covered her face.

Then there was a strange, inexplicably soothing hum, and three objects began to appear beyond the window frame.

Icerainbow stood and cautiously picked her way across the dim grey floor, cold all of a sudden—puzzled, wondering, certain that the hum was calling to her, something within those calm tones casting away all the doubt, tears and sadness that she had felt just seconds ago.

"Icerainbow?" The voice was familiar. The cleric immediately recognized it as the voice of the one who had agreed to take her soul for her son's life, the voice that had spoken when she had given Goldenblaze up to the World of the Dead.

The Guardian, of time as it was made, the one who composed Time itself—it was a haughty, feminine voice that echoed with all of its owner's immense power. The Papulatus Clock.

She came to the window, but could not yet see its shape clearly, only feel its presence. Three presences.

"Dear girl, do you wish to see your son again?"

This voice different, higher, more like the sound of glass run over by a wet finger. But it held power. The same, the same strange strength as the Papulatus, which she would never understand.

"We cannot bring him back. The World of the Dead is not to be bargained with. But we can take _you_ to him…" A new voice. Male. Sadder, wasted, but holding depths of ethereal strength.

"Child, prisoner of time's endless flow…you have suffered much." Now Icerainbow could not tell who spoke, for the voice came from everywhere, straight into her mind, an echo of all three voices in one being.

Then the Papulatus Clock came forward and smiled, taking her hands in its, _her _own. They were two wisps of blue smoke, but she felt their warmth and strength, as real as anything in her world.

"But time has been changed many times," it said. "—Sketched, re-sketched, edited at last moments, even after it has come off the drawing board and come to pass. And we…we have the hardest of hearts, the most unrelenting souls…But we can be moved by human spirit, moved to mercy."

Its voice shook as it said the next line. "Icerainbow…you have had to make such hard choices, last through such suffering, all for the sake of winning a chance for your son to live on…and we watched every step of your long, tiring journey, Icerainbow. You have moved us…" The two behind it nodded, sharing in a communion of powerful sadness.

Finally, she could see them; three great figures were at her window, watching her face. The Gatekeeper, Thanatos, Papulatus Clock, all before her against the dark sky.

The Papulatus moved back and composed itself again. "You have a chance. Do you want to give up your soul to the Dead and see your son again? It will be irreversible; you will never get to return. Are you willing? For this is all we know that will heal you, heal your sadness, and we want that for you."

_Goldenblaze…_

The image of her son's face was enough to give her strength, to stop crying and think about the offer, the price—all she would gain, and all she would pay.

It really wasn't much.

Icerainbow looked up and smiled. Made up her mind. Nodded.

"Take me. Take me back to Goldenblaze."

Then she didn't have to think from that moment onward. She was felt three powers, three ropes of magic wrap around her.

"Hold on tightly," the Papulatus said reassuringly, tearfully. The drops of sadness' rain filled the air like glitter, the air at the windowside. She took a last glance at the beautiful, painful, fascinating world around her, at the shelves and walls, the thin mattress.

And the wind rose. Her feet left the ground, left all humanity. The sky flew away past her, the stars, the mountains and trees only a blur, that grew to brightness, until she came to a stop upon a garden path. The guardians gave her a last greeting, and left.

Icerainbow turned, realizing that she was on a bridge over a river, the water shimmering under her gaze, revealing little of the world below its misted depths. Then she recalled such a river, the days they had stood at the bridge and watched the water flow by, carrying leaves, the beautiful bridge of Goldenblaze's world…

She couldn't help it. She began to cry again. It had been such a distant image, but it had held all the meaning of her past life, of all the times she had shared with Goldenblaze, and lost, so suddenly. It reminded her of—him.

"Mother!"

The voice made Icerainbow straighten up and turn. The cleric didn't have to look to know who it was.

"You're here! I missed you, Mother! I really, really did…"

"So did I…Goldenblaze—"

"It's been so short. Why are you here, so soon?"

She didn't know how to explain. "They gave me a chance. I did this willingly, dear. Don't take it against yourself."

"Mother—!"

Icerainbow turned around, and saw the face of the one she had not seen for what seemed like eternity, tears welling in his eyes. She smiled, cried, laughed, thought it was only a dream, afraid that she would wake up to a painful reality—

But it was real. It was real, and nothing could have made her happier. She was dead. Free. Back with her son, again.

"Mother?"

Icerainbow's eyes began to sting, and she let her tears overwhelm her as well, as her son found himself in her arms.

_You're really with me. And we'll never have to feel pain again. I'll always be with you, for ever and ever!_

"—I love you, Goldenblaze."

And they stood there, in the middle of a world where they didn't have to care about pain, about sadness, about all earthly burdens. A world where they didn't have to live in the shadow of time, where nothing could make them suffer, ever again.

* * *

Well, hope you liked it. Cliched, yeah.

This completes the trio, in many ways. The third Clocktower boss, for example. The third kind of relationship, and the closest of all. A story about the future, when the last two were about the past and the present. And the title alludes to third important part of the clock, the source of its energy. Hope you've enjoyed them, because I definitely enjoyed writing all three. Sorry again about the length.


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